Fondly Remembering The Super Mario Bros. Ice Capades

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Mario has had had his fill of adventures. He’s thrown fireballs at giant dinosaurs, jumped off the heads of flying turtles, and taken to the skies with a tanooki tale pined to his butt. Even so, in 1989 he strapped ice skates to his feet for one of his strangest adventures ever.

On Thursday, December 7, 1989, ABC presented an Ice Capades special. The special coincided with the 50th Anniversary of the Ice Capades. Alyssa Milano and Jason Bateman – teen icons from the era – hosted this odd special, which featured live music and skating performances based around Mattel’s Barbie and Super Mario Bros.

During the Mario Bros. sequence (which you can watch below) Mr. Belvedere star Christopher Hewett shows up dressed like a hobo Bowser and explains that he plans to infect the world with computer viruses spread through the NES consoles in everyone’s living room. The most terrifying version of Princess Peach you’ll ever see then calls on the Super Mario Bros. to come save the day. Note the crazy ‘80s fashion, the primitive understanding of how computer viruses work, and how Luigi steals Mario’s thunder at the end.